Ashleigh Bristol (left), an undergraduate from University of Mississippi, working UVM graduate student Tianxin Miao in the laboratory of Professor Rachael Oldinski, a faculty member of the complex materials REU. Photo: courtesy of Professor Furis

Funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation, the UVM summer program on complex materials brings talented undergraduates from universities across the country to Burlington to work on research projects with the UVM faculty in the materials science program. UVM has the only NSF Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) site in Vermont. Admission to the program is highly competitive, as only ten students are selected from over a hundred applications. Research awards include a $5000 student summer stipend, free housing and some funding for travel to UVM.

The nine-week program culminates with oral presentations of summer research results by the student participants. A list of this year's REU students with their summer project titles includes: Ashleigh Bristol (Characterization of RGD Surface Conjugation of AA-g-PEG Microcarriers), Colin Campbell (Macroscopic Superfluid Properties of Liquid Helium), Jill Chipman (CD Investigation of Axial Ligand Effects on IsdG Secondary Structure), Nicholas Gould (Excitonic Properties of Tetraphenylporphyrin (TPP) Thin Films), Kate Groschner (The Role of Pressure, Atmosphere, and Power on the Formation of WSi2 and Si Nanoclusters), Noah Kohlhorst (Production & Characterization of Organic Molecular Crystals Behaving as Electric Semiconductors), Sabrina Rosa (Synthesis of the First As-C Polymer), Alexander Sylvester (Attraction Between Graphene Layers) and Chan Tran (Simulation Study on the Properties of Nanowires).